How to improve penalties in Formula 1

Stewarding decisions are often controversial in F1, but it's not as simple as many think. Edd Straw takes a look into what happens, and makes a few suggestions

Consistency. It's a word that gets thrown around whenever controversy surrounds refereeing decisions in any sport. Listen to any radio phone-in about football, or read any internet forum on motorsport, and you will see gripes about the way penalties are applied as if invoking that word alone somehow solves all problems. As always, it's not that simple.

While in football, the question of consistency is blurred by the fact that human vision is far more limited than most people realise, when it comes to racing it's different story. There is no need for instant decisions and the stewards have access to plenty of TV footage, far more than is shown on the live feed, and can take their time in digesting and understanding the incident. So there's no excuse for inconsistency, right?